g i r l . n i n e

One hundred girls/days: number nine. First full body lady. Ink and brush/pen on paper. I love the way that ink smells, so soothing.

g i r l . f o u r

One hundred girls in one hundred days, number four! Ink and brush on paper.

g i r l . t h r e e

One hundred girls, day three: ink on paper.

r a i n b o w . b r i t e

Variations! Click here to see more and here to buy.

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Here's hoping that some decent sleep is in my future; recently, I've been spending my nights solo on a futon, dozing off to the Food Network or W (Guy Fieri is basically my best friend [also the property brothers...]). Last night I fell asleep watching Girls on Cosmo, woke up at 3:30 am to the ending credits of Shakespeare in Love and was subsequently too melancholy and bummed to fall back asleep for a while.

Whenever I see Gwyneth Paltrow, I'm compelled to think back to high school, when my AP English class and I, after watching one too many classic-turned-film movies for class, came to the frightening conclusion that she ruled our lives (Great Expectations anyone?).

o h

I've been working on prints lately; getting ready to hand-colour these ladies soon.

m y s e l f

A few years ago, I decided that, as an artist, the only subject matter that I could truly express and feel comfortable doing so was myself. I was (and still am) young enough to realize that I was seriously lacking in lofty world-views and cultural opinions; I felt at the time that any social message that I attempted to express or explore through my work would end up being too transparent or half-formed, and the piece would suffer. So, instead of looking out at the world for inspiration, I looked inward.

Self-portraiture pleases me for several reasons:

I. Documentation of fleeting personal changes and brief moments (as pictured above)
II. Expression of secret thoughts, desires and opinions
III. Exploration and the search for a personal place in the world

It's just the same in the general process of living; all that I have to offer is myself. I can't be any more or less than who I am; I must act in accordance with what makes me feel whole and calm and good. I want to be exuberant and giving and electric; I want to create and capture those feelings in my work.

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I like to think that all work is self-portraiture; the artist's experiences, beliefs and choices influence their work so that it becomes a reflection of their person, regardless of the work's subject matter.

I began to think about this in my second year of Fine Arts at UW, when my class was assigned the challenge of presenting Drawing as both a verb and a noun.  My group and I devised a project in which our classmates were given inkblots and then asked to draw what they saw in the images; as predicted, each participant created a different piece in response to identical inspirations. This supported our hypothesis that each person's life experiences would shape their perceptions and influenced their output. Simple.


Every girl I draw is me; every word I write is a reflection of my own mind.